Thursday, December 29, 2016

"52 Pick-Up"

We get a look at the Cinema Theatre, 1122 N. Western Ave., in John Frankenheimer's "52 Pick-Up" (Cannon / Golan-Globus, 1986). Thanks to Yuri G. for spotting the scene and including the screenshot above on his Movie Tourist page about the film. He also has many more photos of other locations that were used.

The film, based on an Elmore Leonard novel, stars Roy Scheider as an
L.A. businessman who gets hit with some blackmail just as his wife
(Ann-Margret) is running for city council. Going to the police is out of
the question so he tries to deal with the issue quietly -- but problems
arise as he doesn't really want to pay. Kelly Preston plays Scheider's
mistress.

Scheider's done some investigating and found out that one of the extortion ring has a day job as manager / projectionist at the Cinema Theatre, thus his unannounced visit.

The cashier tells him the manager is up in the booth.

Scheider peeks into the booth. It will be quite a surprise to John Glover, who plays the manager.

Another booth view. Glover pretends to do a changeover. And also pretends he doesn't know Scheider. It won't go well for the gang of extortionists -- Roy is smarter and more devious than they could have anticipated.

The poor Cinema Theatre went from being a cute foreign film venue when it opened in 1939 to become the porno venue we see in the film. Now, even worse, it's a church. See our Cinema Theatre page for more photos.